


underneath your white canvas

by timetrees



Series: prime new earth [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-06 01:35:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18840952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timetrees/pseuds/timetrees
Summary: A statue of Jericho had been erected at some point, to commemorate the fallen Titan. He'd been back for a week now, and it was still up.





	underneath your white canvas

**Author's Note:**

> did i not publish a fic just like two days ago? who cares. this one is about rose and joey! there will probably be more parts. i have ideas for them
> 
> fic title is from 'kansas' by vienna teng. (bury this hard / down underneath your white canvas). this song is a joey song in this verse. it's because of this that joey was brought back to life in Kansas, USA, though that's not mentioned in the fic. Lol. anyway joey would like vienna teng and probably covers a lot of her songs (especially considering most if not all of her albums were released at the time of his death in this univ!)  
> chapter title is from 'augustine,' also by vienna teng.

When Rose agreed to come back to the Titans, her face was still mottled with blood from her eye. Her head had been rushing, so fast, adrenaline pumping in her veins like heroin. Nightwing said the Titans would be a good fit for her. Bart Allen was there, so that was at least one person she knew. Nightwing wasn't on the team himself anymore, but he visited.

Like Rose cared if she knew her teammates or not. All she wanted was—

That was the problem. She didn't know what she wanted. Her mind was a sham, built out of love and then tarnished by lies and paternity. Put the kryptonite in your eye, Ravager, kill Superman, _Ravager._ She hated him. He didn't care about her and he never had.

(When he first discovered her, or at least discovered she was his, he'd sent her off with the Titans to keep her safe. What the hell had happened to that?)

Rose didn't know what to make of her brother, either.

Her brother. People called him different names, sometimes, when they did talk about him. Joey, Joe, Jericho. A nickname came from two things in Rose's eyes; having a name that you could shorten, and having others like you enough to shorten it. Before he came back, people only whispered about him, passing that killed conversations. The Titans—his Titans, at least—had mourned him, for years after his death. He'd been their friend.

They erected a statue of Jericho at some point, to commemorate the fallen Titan. He'd been back for a week now, and it was still up.

Raven was the one who'd brought him back. She'd left the Tower without a word to do some ritual, the specifics of which she didn't share, even when asked. She'd been the one to give him a brief overview of what had happened since his death. Major deaths and other broad strokes, she assumed.

They came back in the dead of night. Rose was awake, watching Garfield Logan snooze half on the floor, half on the couch, somehow still in repose. Robin was definitely awake, but he always was. He was leaving soon, anyway, not that he knew she knew.

Raven stepped out from the shadows into the foreground. She looked around the room like she was waiting for someone else to announce her arrival. The hood of her cloak was still on, hiding her face. There were lights on in the room, but the laws of reality rarely applied to Raven.

"Raven," Rose had said, raising a hand in effortless acknowledgement. "What are you doing up so late?"

It was a joke, but she said it so monotonously that it didn't quite come out that way.

From the table he was sitting at, Robin said, "You've been gone for a while. Since Friday."

"I had things to attend to." Raven hesitated. "It's... complicated, but I..." she looked at Rose. "Rose, you've heard about Jericho, correct?"

"Of course," Rose said.

Raven sighed.

"You didn't," Robin said.

She did.

 

*

 

That was a week ago, and Rose had managed to avoid her brother even through several old Titans coming to the Tower to check in on him, see if it was true, if the beloved Jericho was really back after all this time. Rose wasn't sure how long he'd been dead—three years, maybe.

She was sure Raven or someone had told Jericho about her, but he didn't come to look for her. Was he trying to spare her feelings or did he not like the idea of having a half-sister? Rose didn't know and she tried not to care. Family was a lie and she wanted no part of it, not anymore.

Her mother was dead.

"Are you going to talk to him?" Robin asked her. He was sitting on the table and playing some puzzle game on his phone, dragging colored shapes into holes to try and arrange them in the right pattern. He didn't even look at her when he said it, but he couldn't have been talking to anyone else.

"None of your business," Rose said haughtily. She kind of liked Robin, actually, even if he was bossy and at times overbearing, but that didn't mean he had the right to her family matters. She didn't interrogate him about Batman and Nightwing, or whoever his family was.

Robin shrugged. "Okay," he said. "But for what it's worth, Jericho is a good guy. One of the best, probably."

Rose scowled. "I didn't know you'd met," she said.

"Only once or twice before he died," Robin said. "I didn't know much ASL at the time, so we didn't talk much, but Nightwing was always a big fan."

It seemed everyone had met her brother except her. That was her fault, she guessed, but she still didn't know how to approach him. If she wanted to approach him.

In the end, it wasn't her that approached Jericho, nor vice versa. The Tower had gone under attack again, as always, and after the battle (which only destroyed a few rooms in the building), Rose and Joe Wilson ended up in the same room at the same time for the first time ever.

He was looking at her, only a few feet away but it seemed like a mile. His hair was bleached blonde and curly, completely unlike Rose's straight white hair. His eyes were dark, but she knew they turned green when he used his powers. He was several inches taller than her.

Rose swallowed. "Hi," she said. Her voice came out more girlish than rough, like she was still a child. But she wasn't, anymore. She was sixteen years old and she'd seen too much for that now.

Jericho signed something that must have been a hello back; it looked like a salute. Rose winced and hesitated before speaking again.

"I don't... I don't know much ASL," she admitted. Anger at herself for not knowing it pushed inside her, but she shoved it down. How could she have known he would come back to life? Even though ASL was probably a useful skill to have even if she didn't have a specific person to learn it for; there would always be deaf people she might save, or people like Jericho who couldn't speak verbally. "I'm sorry," Rose said.

Jericho tilted his head like he was thinking. He pointed at her, let the finger stay there for a second, and then made the OK sign. You're okay, or something close to that.

"I'm sorry for avoiding you," Rose blurted out. She hadn't known she was sorry for it before speaking, but she'd said it, so it must be true. "It's just... our father. And I don't know you. But I want to."

His face was so hard to read, and for a moment she thought he would strike down her not-offer, say  _ I had a sibling and I'm done with it. _ But then he smiled at her, gently, and it made his whole face brighten. She'd heard he was handsome, seen the statue, but his figure had only been intimidating to her before now. Now he was a living and breathing person.

Jericho—Joey?—took out a phone, which must have been given to him by... someone. Raven, but she wasn't very into tech. Maybe Nightwing had given him one when he visited the day before. Joey started typing and then after a few presses, the text to speak feature sounded.

"I want to know you, too," it said. "I can help you with ASL if you want."

Rose nodded, looked away. "That would be nice," she said. "Thank you."

"Did I just hear Rose Wilson say  _ thank you? _ " a voice from behind them said. It was Gar, because only Gar joked like that.  Joey smiled when he saw him. "Hey, Joe."

Joey signed something.

"She doesn't?" Gar said. They must have been talking about Rose, then... "I can help, if you want," Gar said to Rose. She crossed her arms.

"I'm fine getting help from Jericho and the internet," she said. She wondered if he wanted her to call him Joe, like Gar had, but Jericho didn't react to her using his codename.

Gar put his hands up in surrender. "Hey, just trying to help," he said. He was acting like she'd threatened to stab him, which hadn't happened in weeks. Well, a week and a half. Still.

Gar said, "Has Joey shown you any of his music? We have a piano in the rec room," he added, looking at Jericho, who smiled.

She'd heard legends of Jericho's musical talents, but she'd never heard it herself. Rose had to admit she was intrigued; she liked singing as much as anyone, but instruments had never lent themselves to her with any ease. She'd broken multiple recorders in her youth, so much that her mom eventually stopped replacing the cheap plastic things at all.

"I'd like to hear that," Rose said. "If you want to show me."

Joey was still smiling, but when he looked at her, his smile changed, grew as large as a smile could without becoming a grin. He nodded at her and signed something to Gar.

"Yeah, I'll show you the way," Gar said. "Come on, follow me."

The music was beautiful.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> some notes  
> \- this takes place in PNE (prime new earth)'s version of 52. Joey did not possess Slade and go crazy, because that's bullshit.  
> \- Raven felt bad about Joey dying (since he died because he was possessed by spirits who wanted to get to her), so when she got the chance, she brought him back. Don't ask how, this is comic books.  
> \- Joey is trying to adjust to the new world, but it's been 3 years since he died, and many of his friends are dead now, and some of those who aren't (Nightwing) don't know what to make of him being back, and he's sad about it. Raven told him about Rose and he's very mad at his dad about her, and really interested in knowing more, but it's hard, because he ALSO just got the news that his mother is dead. So Joey is lowkey avoiding Rose at the same time she's avoiding him.  
> \- For the record, I don't think Joey's age was ever really stated in NTT but in my calculations re: Rose's age and the fact that he was engaged a year prior to his first appearance, I'mputting him at an incredibly mature ~22-23 at his death, so that's what his age is now.


End file.
